Now that the Telugu Desam Party entered into an alliance with the Jana Sena Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, candidates of one party who are not able to get the party tickets due to the seat sharing pact are jumping into other parties of the alliance to get the tickets.
A classic case is that of senior Telugu Desam Party leader and former deputy speaker of the Andhra Pradesh state assembly Mandali Buddha Prasad, who is forced to defect to the Jana Sena Party to get the latter’s ticket for Avanigadda seat.
Avanigadda has been allocated by the TDP to the Jana Sena Party as part of seat sharing agreement, despite the fact that he enjoys a lot of goodwill in the constituency and can win the seat comfortably.
On the other hand, Jana Sena Party which took the seat from the TDP is not able to find a right candidate to contest.
Though there are candidates like noted industrialist Vikkurthi Srinivas, Jana Sena Party Krishna district unit president Bandreddi Ramakrishna, a hotel owner Bandi Ramakrishna, lawyer M Venkateshwara Rao and others, they do not have the capacity to take on the YSR Congress party in the constituency.
If Mandali Buddha Prasad contests as a rebel TDP candidate, it will only help the YSRCP, as it will split the anti-incumbency votes.
So, TDP president N Chandrababu Naidu requested Jana Sena Party chief Pawan Kalyan to take Buddha Prasad into Jana Sena and give him the ticket for contest.
As per the plan, the former minister is joining the Jana Sena Party in the presence of Pawan Kalyan in Hyderabad and will be given the party ticket.
One won’t be surprised if Buddha Prasad returns to the TDP after being elected on Jana Sena Party ticket, say sources.